In Attempt to Force Talks, N.B.A. Players File Antitrust Suit

Locked-out players began their legal assault on the N.B.A. on Tuesday, filing an antitrust lawsuit that demands an end to what they contend is an illegal boycott of the work force. They are seeking monetary damages for lost wages, which would be tripled under antitrust law.

Resolution of the lawsuit could take months or years, but the immediate goal is to push N.B.A. owners back to the bargaining table and salvage some part of the 2011-12 season.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California by the lawyers David Boies and Jonathan Schiller, who were retained by the players on Monday when they disbanded their union.

“I hope it is not necessary to litigate this all the way,” Boies said during a news conference at the Harlem headquarters of the union, the National Basketball Players Association. “I hope at some point the N.B.A. and the teams will have enough concern for basketball fans that they will resolve these issues and allow the players to start playing.”

The lawsuit was filed in collaboration with the N.B.P.A., which continues to operate as a trade association under the leadership of Billy Hunter, its executive director. The lead plaintiffs listed are Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups of the Knicks, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the free agent Leon Powe and the San Antonio Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard. Those players were chosen because they represent a wide range of classes within the association.

An N.B.A. spokesman said the league had not seen the complaint, but added: “It’s a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate. They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn’t satisfy them at the bargaining table and they appear to have followed through on their threats.”

A separate, similar lawsuit was filed earlier Tuesday in Minnesota, by a law firm representing the free agent Caron Butler, Ben Gordon of the Detroit Pistons, Anthony Tolliver of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Derrick Williams, a Timberwolves draft pick. That lawsuit asks for both monetary damages and a permanent injunction.

Both lawsuits were filed in circuits that are considered to be player-friendly. The N.B.A. pre-emptively sued the players union in August, in the Southern District of New York, in the Second Circuit, which is viewed as more owner-friendly.

Photo

David Boies, a lawyer who filed the players’ suit Tuesday.Credit
Patrick Mcdermott/Getty Images

More lawsuits are expected now that the collective bargaining process has collapsed, and the players are no longer protected by a union. A separate faction of players, who had been pushing for decertification of the union before it disbanded, may pursue its own lawsuit. Another suit could be filed on behalf of rookies, who could be considered a separate class since they have never had a contract or paid union dues.

Eventually, all the lawsuits will have to be combined, with the players and the owners each arguing to have the case heard in the jurisdiction it favors. That could create a further delay, although Boies said he hoped it would not slow down the process. He said he hoped for a summary judgment on the damages before the season is canceled.

Labor talks broke down last Thursday, with the league saying it had made its final offer and Commissioner David Stern saying that negotiations were over. Stern asked the players to approve the league’s proposal, or have it replaced by one less favorable to them. The players rejected the ultimatum and instead disbanded the union.

You are already subscribed to this email.

“If you’re in a poker game and you run a bluff and the bluff works, you’re a hero,” Boies said. “If somebody calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand.”

The N.B.A. players are not asking for a preliminary injunction, as the N.F.L. players did in challenging a lockout last spring. Boies, who represented the N.F.L. in that case, said that an injunction “would be very difficult to get” and that pursuing it “would delay the case perhaps for many months.”

Instead, the players are seeking summary judgment for monetary damages.

“We believe the right way to address the players’ damages is to ask the owners to pay for it,” Boies said. “And since under the antitrust laws they have to pay three times damages, that’s a pretty good incentive to end” the lockout.

Coincidentally, Tuesday was the day that N.B.A. players missed their first paychecks, which would have totaled in excess of $170 million. Anthony, the All-Star forward, would have received a check for $1.5 million.

While the lawyers wrestle in court, the players and the owners could conceivably return to the bargaining table, just as the N.F.L. players and owners did last spring while their litigation proceeded. There would be limits on what issues could be negotiated in the absence of a union, which would have to be reconstituted to complete a labor deal.

Stern, however, has repeatedly declared that the league will not negotiate beyond the offer it made last week: a 50-50 split of revenues, combined with a matrix of new restrictions on free agency and player payrolls, which the players oppose. Stern said last week that if the players rejected that proposal, the N.B.A. would replace it with an offer based on a 47 percent share for players and a hard salary cap.

In an interview with ESPN on Monday, Stern said, “Now there’s no one to negotiate with, because the union’s not there, and we won’t be doing anything soon with respect to their lawyers, whoever their lawyers may be.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 16, 2011, on Page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: In Attempt to Force Talks, Players File Antitrust Suit. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe